Simple paragraph rule text effects

Create sophisticated visual effects that update as you type using the power of QuarkXPress' Paragraph Rule Above and Rule Below features.

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Paragraph rules are a staple layout tool and have been available in software since the early days of QuarkXPress.

Useful as a way of delineating and providing a decorative frame to text, most InDesign users will be familiar with how they work. Where rules are concerned, however, we can go far beyond the intended effects. InDesign gives us enough control to hijack the rules, pushing Rules Above behind Rules Below, setting both behind the text and opening up a range of possibilities for creative effects.

In this tutorial, we're going to work up a page from a fashion house's footwear brand book. We'll look at the different types of paragraph rules that are available, see how to bend them to suit our purposes and save them as reusable paragraph styles. Once you've got the idea, there is no limit on the range of styles you can achieve using this simple but effective trick.